The Loire Valley, especially Blois and the Châteaux of the Loire by Rosemary Kneipp & Jean Michel Avril

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The Postie’s Peg – La pince du facteur

Date: December 3, 2015

Author: avril

We don’t exactly live in the country, but it’s still a good 15 minute walk to the government mail box to post a letter so we have an arrangement with our postman whereby we leave a peg on the box if we have a letter to post. He then uses his skeleton key to open the box and take out the letter. Since he doesn’t come until about 11 am, it means that we don’t have to get up early and charge down the street to catch the 9 am deadline on the mail box.

@Stuart – Initially Jean Michel used to keep an eye out for the postman so he could give him any letters to post then one day the postman said that people usually left a peg on the outside of the box so we don’t know whether the idea comes from this particular postman or not.
@Helen and William: Isn’t it just?

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The Loire and city of Blois

The Loire River is the longest river in France, covering more than 1,000 km from its source in the Massif Central to its mouth in the Bay of Biscay in the Atlantic Ocean. The main towns are Nevers, Orleans, Blois, Tours and Nantes. It is famous for its châteaux, particularly Chenonceau, Chambord, Chaumont and Cheverny, and its vineyards. The Loire Valley, a World Heritage Site, spanning about 300 km, is located in the middle stretch, 2 to 3 hours south of Paris.

Blois, where I live, is a town of 50,000 people ideally located for visiting the area. Although much was destroyed during the war, it still has some lovely old streets winding up the steep banks of the Loire. It was once the centre of the French Renaissance with a prestigious castle. Louis XII, king of France in 1498, was born there in 1462. One of its citizens, Denis Papin, invented the steam engine in 1647 and the illusionist Louis-Eugène Roubert-Houdin, born in 1805, is celebrated in the “House of Magic” just opposite the castle.